The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson REVIEW
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 18 сен 2024
- The full novel, old timer that it is, is available at Project Gutenberg:
www.gutenberg....
US readers, buy the book on IndieBound (yep I'm an affiliate):
www.indiebound...
(As often happens with public-domain books on IndieBound, a plethora of editions are available - you might have to search around the website a little to find one you like)
UK & other European readers, buy it on Blackwell's (also an affiliate):
blackwells.co....
(The same is true for Blackwell's - this is the cheapest paperback they have, I think, but you might find other editions you like more)
PS: I have it on good authority that the 2018 Swan River Press edition is the best one you'll be able to find ;)
If you enjoy my reviews, please consider supporting the channel on Patreon:
/ thebookchemist
One-off donations are also always welcome:
www.paypal.me/...
Follow me on GoodReads!
/ 15078502.mattia_ravasi
Follow me on Twitter!
/ the_bookchemist
If The House on the Borderland frustrates you, you'll probably tear your hair out reading Hodgson's The Night Land. I love it to death, but it is a ponderous read. If it had been written in a more accessible manner, I believe it would be talked about as much as Lovecraft's works.
Yes!!! One of the best horror novels of the 20th century.
The 2018 Swan River Press edition is the best published to date.
I'll make a note about that in the description box ;) thanks!
I love the whole of the psychedelic section. The only part that tried my patience was when time slows down but that's only a few pages.
The Night Land is one of the most flawed classics there probably is. Definitely worthwhile but be prepared for lots of redundant repetition.
Boats Of The Glen Carrig has an amazing beginning but the last third is a huge letdown.
The Carnacki stories are generally quite good but some people love them more than I do. The final story resembles House On The Borderland in a couple of ways.
Ghost Pirates is an enjoyable novel and might even be his best written novel but it's also the least essential of his four novels.
His other short stories vary immensely in interest (I haven't read them all yet), many of them of them are non-supernatural stories of smugglers. "The Voice In The Night" is probably his best known ghost story.
Trapped in a Lucid Dream for an eternity - Probably as close to HELL as one can get
I thought the pig men were a bit silly.
I liked the trippy cosmic journey stuff. The part where he describes the years rushing past him is cinematic before cinema was invented.
I can’t for the life of me remember what it was supposed to be about in the end. Lost in time.
Great analysis.
What a trip this novella is! Phantasmagorical, weird, foreboding. I agree with you, it is a must-read for any fan of old school weird fiction. TBH, I always made sure I had had a couple of glasses down my system before diving into it, and this made me absolutely enjoy it, even the phantasmagorical parts. :)
Now, you want sth. from Hodgson that has both an original, terrifying build-up and an absolutely satisfactory (if somewhat stretched out) conclusion? Go for "The Night Land". Not without its peculiarities, but it is definitely his magnum opus, and it's the most unique novel I've ever read. (The original and unabridged text is the best, everything else would dilute the experience. I've got it only as a free e-book.)
If you're into some short stories, there's a dirt-cheap and widely available collection of his from Wordsworth Editions: The Casebook of Carnacki The Ghost-Finder. Some of the stories are mediocre, but a few are very good.
Best regards
Wow, this book blew my mind! Amazing. Thanks for the review, I've read most of the other books you mentioned, and will definitely seek out those i have not.
The love narrative was the redeeming part of the entire thing
Three years late but if you want a horror novel with a very satisfying ending read Revival by stephen king, that ending sticks with me to this dau
I wasn't expecting to like this book as much as I did. The first half is so much fun and actually does have some scary parts like the underground tunnels with rivers dropping down into an abyss below. The second half was much less enjoyable though. I really like the shotgun lol
I really enjoyed how jarring the shift was in the second half of the book. It just kept going and going and getting more and more absurd. Loved it
I have never ever read books for pleasure, and this book was my first crack at it. I started it without even reading the summary. I just googled "free sci fi books" and clicked one of the first ones.
I was expecting the stereotypical sci-fi idea I've gotten from media (think that Spongebob "future" episode or Star Wars, etc) and was pleasantly surprised. The book had me hooked pretty early. My favorite part was the suspense around the days leading up to the attack of the swine things, especially when he first sees one of the swine things peering in through the window.
Though, I must say as a non-reader, the older language use was quite a barrier to overcome and the vagueness and lack of an "aha" moment at the end where everything makes sense has been hard. I just finished today though, so it's possible I need to sit with it more (or that I just misunderstood).
Very glad this was my first choice though, I'll be searching for new free books to try out reading. If anyone has recommendations for ones that might surprise me and be suspenseful, please feel free to share.
I loved the interaction between the man and his sister. His misinterpretation of her fear made him scarier.
I've always wondered if you had read this book. I remember when I got my copy years ago, it was only available in print-on-demand. It's nice to see it get the attention it deserves. I've read it twice, and the swine people and the time travel sections are incredible. It's not without its flaws, but it's a short read so it is forgiven easily.
I read this in March and it's my favorite book so far that I've read this year (it's also included among the '1,001 Books you must read before you die')
I think it's a sublime piece of writing. I think it's like a mystical experience gone wrong
Wow, I finished reading it for the first time last week or so!
Just finished reading it 🙂
An interesting book! I totally agree with your analysis!
I love your channel so much! I'm writing a BA thesis on David Foster Wallace this year and will reference your project muse article in it just so you know. :,)) I feel like your theory deserves to be cited more.
Thank you, I'm happy you found the article useful! What is your thesis about?
@@TheBookchemist It's in the early stages but I think it's going to look at DFW's relationship to analytic philosophy and maybe how mathematics has been influential to postmodern literature. But yeah, the article made me think of artistic influence in a different way I hadn't considered!
A bit off-topic but i'm curious what do you think about The King in Yellow by Robert Chambers. Personally i loved it and understood why it influenced Lovecraft. Just a bit disappointed that a few of the stories in the book didn't connect with the others as much.
I really appreciate it The King in Yellow, but more for its historical relevance to the history of weird fiction than in and of itself. "The Repairer of Reputations" would be the only story in the collection that really stayed with me; the rest showed some strokes of genius (in its fantastical elements, its plots, its execution), but overall it seemed a bit too manneristic, too tied to narrative conventions that at the time were already being disrupted.
@@TheBookchemist In my case i was more hooked by the yellow thread which tied the stories together. I wanted to see how the King in Yellow's (the fictional play) crept its way into mankinds nightmares until, bit by bit, it would turn the world mad and its contents laid bare to the audience. I did like what we have but i guess my expectations were too high.......also to be honest i think that Robert Chambers did the whole ' describing the unexplainable' a bit better than Lovecraft...idk to me he does it a bit more elegantly than H.P.
Hey man, Have you ever tried Thomas Ligotti? I think he'll be right up your alley.
I'm sure he will be! I've never read him but he's very high on my list :)
@@TheBookchemist Great! If you want to start with him most people will recommend Songs of a dead dreamer, though i personally feel the prose can be a little bruised in it for some tastes, so if you don't enjoy it please move on to Grimscribe. That's where Ligotti started to build up the reputation he has. The first section has two absolutely wonderful Lovecraft homages as well.
You nailed it.
Great vid as always. Also, is that a sex and the city box set
personaly i found the first part of the book the most boring at first read but since then if started to like it more
I don't understand how you can claim that this and Kadath are some of your favorite horror works while calling the majority of what they are composed of stupid, boring, and self-indulgent. Show me a work that describes someone's visionary experience without being focused on that one person's experience... What's more, it's the furthest thing from solipsism: what both works attempt to describe is the vast and incomprehensible reality of the non-human.
Another thing: at no point does the narrator do anything more than hint at vague ideas of what it all means. There is no point at which the smoke clears and the evil is banished.
Great point about explanation ruining horror. Kubrick's Shining is good film but a masterpiece only in it's first half.
its a masterpiece all the way through
Read The Night Land by WHH.
I don't read much horror but this sounds interesting.
I was preparing to read this book next. The Night Land is another I will read. Do you like Edgar Rice Burroughs?
I've never read any of his works!
King is the clunky writer to me. His endings are often so very MOR let-downs.
Hodgson's cosmic cornerstone of Horror has a mention in the new Lovecraft Country
The pig creatures ruined me😯
Is this book in the same universe as his other book, The night land?
I don't know that it canonically is, but the far-future world the protagonist sees is very similar - no sun, huge creatures that resemble the gods of Old Earth - and I was wondering if it was an origin myth for The Night Land all along.
I didn't get past the boring bits, also I found quite repeating.